COLLINS: Nuno goes from obscurity to star of Yankees' camp

Kathy Willens / associated press
New York Yankees starting pitcher Vidal Nuno delivers during the first inning of a spring training game Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox. Nuno allowed just two hits over five innings in the Yankees' 4-0 win.

TAMPA

Every spring, there's a guy who comes out of nowhere, who has no chance in February, little chance in March and starts to look pretty good once April approaches.

Remember Jon Weber? He was the darling of Yankees camp in 2010, a reserve outfielder who crushed Triple-A pitching but never quite got that major league shot.

Remember when Doug Bernier hit .361 last year, and almost convinced the Yankees to bring him north?

Well, this year, Vidal Nuno is the guy who came out of nowhere.

And in reality, he might as well have.

For their part, Weber and Bernier were minor league players who simply never broke the barrier to the big leagues before they came to Yankees camp. Not so long ago, Nuno couldn't even break the barrier to be a minor leaguer.

Right now, Yankees fans know him as the 25-year-old southpaw who has perhaps been the Yankees' best pitcher in big league camp. That's recognition he deserves, too, considering he has allowed just one run on seven hits in 13â  innings. On Wednesday, he baffled Boston for five shutout innings, and that's one way to get Yankees fans on your good side.

Funny thing about Yankees fans, though, is that they don't wonder where a guy has been all their lives. In Nuno's case, they don't know what brought a 5-foot-11 lefty from outside of San Diego to the brink of the majors less than two years after he found himself pitching in the Frontier League, trying simply to hang on.

"I'm really proud," Nuno said. "It's just a matter of coming in, every day, working on your stuff and keeping your body healthy. If you keep your body healthy, good things will happen, and you will give yourself a shot."

Fact of the matter is, Nuno was never a prospect.

The Cleveland Indians drafted him in the 2009 draft out of tiny Baker University. But they did so in the 48th round. Nuno signed, because it was his only shot to be a pro.

He had a decent 2009, going 5-0 with a 2.09 ERA at low Class A Mahoning Valley, but he pitched to a 4.96 ERA in 2010 at Lake County.

The Indians then did what most teams do with a 48th round draft pick who has a 4.96 ERA in A ball.

They cut him.

Out of affiliated baseball, but not out of chances.

Nuno signed with the Washington WildThings of the Frontier League in 2011. He pitched in six games with a 2.83 ERA, and that's where he got the break of his life.

Looking for organizational pitching depth in the low minors, the Yankees signed him.

While it would be a good tale, Yankee mystique didn't lead Nuno to do what he has done in the last nearly two seasons.

With Staten Island in 2011, he went 5-0 with a 0.82 ERA. With Charleston: 2-1, 1.80.

Last season, he was just as good, going 10-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 1.19 WHIP between Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton.

"The difference is a mindset, a little bit," he said. "It's just finding the right chance to produce and give it a shot."

Changes came simply because Nuno made changes. Two of them, to be exact.

First, the Yankees convinced him to throw his change-up more often.

That's a pitch he always had, Nuno said. But the up-front Yankees told him he'd never get where he wanted to go if he didn't throw it more often.

"I finally started trusting it like a year ago," Nuno said. "I had a fastball-curveball mindset. My pitching coaches told me I needed that pitch. They were just helping me out.

"It's a pitch they pretty much preach. Best combination in baseball is fastball-changeup. It just keeps people off balance. Instead of hard, hard, hard, you can throw that change in there and watch them get off balance."

The second change came once he got to Trenton.

Thunder pitching coach Tommy Phelps worked with him to learn how to throw a cut fastball, which Nuno said has become an out pitch for him.

"I just decided to throw it in the 'pen, and my pitching coach showed me how to release it," Nuno said. "I took it into the game, faced one batter and got him. After that, I was like, 'Wow, it gets people out.' I just took it on and practiced it every day. When you practice it every day, you can form it however you want."

The cut fastball and renewed confidence in his change-up might only take Nuno so far. History says the guy who comes out of nowhere doesn't have staying power once camp ends.

Weber struggled out of the gates for Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre and was released by June back in 2010. The slick-fielding Bernier went back to Triple-A and was nothing more than a reserve with a .201 batting average after camp ended.

April will come, and right now, Nuno looks like a prince - especially with Phil Hughes struggling to round into form and a long relief spot seemingly open. But the unlikeliest of candidates to make the big league roster at this point is well aware of how fast the chariot taking him to his dreams can turn into a pumpkin.

Nuno has no spot on the 40-man roster, and Adam Warren does. While Nuno has largely outpitched him, the Yankees may not want to have to cut someone to bring up a long reliever for what might amount to six days.

That makes Vidal Nuno an even longer shot.

So the trick might not be showing the Yankees what he can do now. It might be doing what Weber and Bernier couldn't: Showing them in June that he still has it.

DONNIE COLLINS covers the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders for The Sunday Times. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com and follow him on Twitter @RailRidersTT.

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.